


What They May Have Said

by Helen8462



Series: Tumbler Prompts, Challenges and Other Inspired Vignettes [7]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Contest, Drab-lets, F/M, Missing Scenes, Mystery Episodes, variety of genres
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-10 00:56:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helen8462/pseuds/Helen8462
Summary: This is a series of J/C related drab-lets (each 100-500 words) that were written to quiz the reader.  They are potential missing scenes from the episodes.





	1. Gone and Back Again

**Author's Note:**

> Each of these originally appeared on Tumblr. The first episode and wordcount was chosen by a random number generator.  
> The person who identified that episode correctly got to choose the next, and so on. To play along, follow me there at @jhelenoftrek (Series: Guess it, Pick next). I may also post a few here first and let AO3 readers partake if there is interest.

Gone.  Just… mid-sentence.  Ripped away. My heart fell through my stomach then into the floor of Engineering only to evaporate with her.

Is it horrible that I didn’t take this situation seriously until she disappeared?  

There are forty of us left now.  I’m running out of time.  Nine minutes and twenty seconds tick by much too quickly.  I begin preparing for the inevitable.  But it seems I’m too late.  I was too trusting for too long.

The turn.

They’ve escaped the cargo bay.  They have _her._ But where?  And why? And dear God tell me she’s safe.

If she’s already dead there is nothing left for me to do.  So I’m focusing on the task at hand until I too run out of time.

And then.

She’s there.  I don’t care where I am.  Just that she is with me again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For/From the random number generator. 141 words. Episode #66 - "Displaced"


	2. Shhhhh....

“You didn’t learn?” 

She shook her head.  “Much to my mother’s dismay, I never did.”

“Well, it’s never too late to pick something up.  You showed quite a bit of promise with… well, whatever that was in the mess hall,” Chakotay offered, finishing the last of his nearly empty glass of wine.

Kathryn huffed.  “Yes, well.  I wouldn’t attribute that concerto to latent talent, more like alien intervention. And, I don’t exactly have time for a hobby quite so involved as learning an instrument at the moment.”

“Oh, come on.  I’m sure Harry would be happy to give you clarinet lessons,” Chakotay joked.  “By the time we get home you’ll be ready for your Carnegie Hall debut.”

She rolled her eyes.  “I think I’d need a considerable amount of practice to get to that point.  I’m hoping not to be on this ship that long.”  She too sipped at her wine then snorted as a thought poked through.  “Could you imagine?  Me learning the clarinet.  With all the screeching I’d scare away everyone on deck three.”

Chakotay laughed right along with her.  “We could always soundproof your quarters.”

“That seems like a misuse of ships resources, Commander,” she chided.

“I don’t know, soundproofing could have other benefits.”

“Such as?”

“Well….” he began, lifting himself out of his place on the chair and landing gently on the couch beside her.  “For one thing, your communications would be made more private.”

“And just who am I privately communicating with out here?”

“A need may arise. Ship’s security could be at stake.”

“What a good first officer,” she praised, placing a hand on his knee.  “Always thinking of the safety of our crew.”

“Don’t forget your personal happiness.”

She eyed him slyly.  “You think soundproofing will make me happy?”

“I know it.”  With his breath close and warm on the side of her neck, she groaned.  “I’ll enter the work order first thing tomorrow.”

“What about tonight?” she wondered, hopeful.

“Tonight….” he hissed, raising his lips to clutch at her earlobe.  “We’ll need to be quiet for the last time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For/From @emmikamikatze. 347 words. Episode 3x06 "Remember"


	3. No Matter What

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is post-Endgame. Correct answer is the episode that KJ is recalling.

The slow walk we are taking reminds me of one from a lifetime ago.  We’ve both grown and changed a lot since then.  I think about it now, with every step, just how far we have all come.

“No matter what happens, we’ll make it,” he had told me.  And he was right.

I had never been so scared to enter a cargo bay in my life.  His words should have calmed and reassured me, but I didn’t know him then as I do now.  

We stop short of the doors and I turn to face him.  His hand finds its way to a familiar place on my shoulder.

“I told you…” he says with a burgeoning smile.  “I told you we’d make it no matter what.”

_He remembered._

I nod, a lump is forming in my throat.  I want to tell him everything.  I want to thank him and apologize and profess a thousand other things that I think of in bed at night.  But the words won’t come.  No matter. I will find the right moment after the festivities - when we are alone.  

“The bay won’t be empty this time,” I manage.

He shakes his head and I know that he too will be happy to see each and every face, all in one place, for what might be the last time.  

The doors swish open and cheering erupts.  He falls a step behind me.  He is smiling, this I know.  

_We made it._   We are home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For/From @carlynroth. 250 words. Episode 2 x 01 - "The 37's"


	4. The Confession

_It wasn’t my idea.  
_

_I didn’t want to do it._

I’ve been telling myself these words for weeks but the nightmares won’t subside.  I see her standing before me, eyes wide with disbelief at what I have ordered.  I feel no remorse.

He draws his weapon and I wait with eager anticipation.  I want to see her fall.  I want to see her crumble and suffer.  I want to be rid of her and then maybe I can be rid of goddamn everything else she keeps doing to me.

When I wake, I am mortified.  Sick.  Most mornings I dry heave over the side of the bed before my eyes are fully open.  

I’ve done everything I can think of to shed the guilt - to forget.  I’ve recycled my clothing, dumped the Vulcan brandy and destroyed the weapon.  I’ve even attempted to confess.

“It wasn’t my idea,” I told her.  “I didn’t want to do it.”  Half-truth poured from my tongue like syrup over a cake of wretched lies.  

She told me that she understood, she forgave me.  But her words were short-lived relief.  I could see the hurt set deep within her soul.  I never wanted it to be this way between us.  

My unending, unrequited devotion had morphed to depthless sorrow.  And then twisted into rage.

There is only one other person who knows.  At the end of the day, he’s the only other individual I trust explicitly out here – and especially after this.  God, I owe him my life another time now. 

I decide, at once, I need to speak with him.  I can’t endure another night of quiet torture.

“Hey boss,” Ayala greets me, spry and ready even though it’s well into twilight hours.

“Got a minute?” I ask.

“All night,” he replies, waving me through.  A bottle of whisky – seal still intact – has been waiting on the table.  He knows me well.

I sit.  He pours.

“How much do you remember?” I finally get out.

He sets his glass down, it makes a dull thud.  “Everything.”

I lower my face to my palms, fingers catching in my hair. 

“I’ll shut the hell up if you want, but I thought you loved her,” he says.

I nod. 

“Then why?”

I shake my head with my hands.  

He sips from his drink again, sees that mine is empty and refills the glass.

“Disabling the phaser….” I say, words hushed in shame.

“It was my idea.”

He waits for my confession.  

“I didn’t want to do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For/From @kbunks4. 420 words. 7 x 04 - "Repression"


	5. That Sweet and Life-affirming Spot

He remembers feeling warm skin under his fingertips – still new and exhilarating and so worth the wait. Oh…and the wanton way she moaned his name, syllables vibrating through her throat, imperceptible to his ears but music to his lips.  He remembers that too.  

It wasn’t their first time, but nearly so, and definitely the first time he had kissed here there, in that wonderful spot just below her ear along the side of her flushed neck. She tasted sweet in that place, her flesh tender under his mouth. He found it so heavenly in fact, that he lingered just a bit longer than he might have otherwise - and now he’s glad that he did.  Because this is how he wants to remember her, full of life and blushing with pleasure.

Not still and solid.  Blasted back and instantly gone.  Not turning cold under his two fingertips in that same, delicate, life-affirming spot he had enjoyed mere hours before.  No.  He refuses to remember her like that.

It is days later now.  The crisis has passed and he’s dealing with the aftermath.  He can’t yet bring himself to look at, let alone wear, the pips his first officer has left on the ready room desk – without so much as a blink of emotion. Someday he will have to don them, but not today.  Certainly not tomorrow either.

He has just committed her body and the bodies of several others to the stars. Everyone is grieving, confused and angry. Most notably his helmsman who has found it so impossible to maintain composure that he’s been relieved of duty. Chakotay doesn’t have that luxury.

Then he remembers.  Kes.  She had spoken to him, trying desperately to unravel her own mystery in the midst of ship-wide crisis.  He had felt badly that he couldn’t help her but in a flash he realizes she may be able to help him. She will be jumping again soon, ahead to their past.  Maybe she can relay a message.

He rushes to sickbay where she has been unconscious, hoping he is not too late.  She awakens only briefly, shivers, and then she is gone.  He holds his breath - waits a few moments – but nothing changes. He returns to his quarters and finally loses all ability to cope.  Sobbing, he falls to the bed.  Exhaustion overtakes what is left of him.

When he wakes in the morning, _she_  is there.

The haze of a future redirected burns away. He is none the wiser and happily so. She straddles his waist, lays down across his chest and moans into his mouth once more. He plays, then tears himself away to search for his favorite spot.  Right there - under her ear along the side of her neck – is where he lingers a little longer than he might have otherwise.  Because she tastes so sweet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From/for @mia-cooper. 476 words. Episode 3 x 21: "Before and After"


	6. Stunning

“Neelix says the lei represents the flowering of love,” he relays, giving me a chaste kiss on the cheek and threading delicate blossoms over my head.  His fingers linger on the back of my neck as he frees my hair.

“Is that so?”

“Mm hm,” he hums.  He leads us toward an isolated palm tree, away from prying eyes.

“I think the party is that way,” I remind.

“Is it?”

“Yes.”  I can’t help the smile playing over my lips.  “This isn’t appropriate.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes half-heartedly.  “I’m being moved by emotion.”

“You said that about the nebula.”

“Did I?” he asks, spreading his hand dangerously low across my bare back.  

“Yes, you did.  Don’t think I didn’t read between your lines.” He pushes closer to me.

“What lines?” he jokes, dimples appearing.  “That nebula was stunning.”

“It was.”  I feel the tree against my back now.  I’m deliciously trapped.

“Not as stunning as you are in that dress,” he says in between laying kisses  along my exposed shoulders.

“Speaking of lines….”

“Not nearly as stunning as when that dress is on my floor,” he whispers into my ear.

“Chakotay, we said not in public,” I reprimand, but secretly I hope that he ignores me.  The danger of this situation – of being found out – is more of a turn-on than I had expected.

“I know, and I’m done,” he says finally.  Standing upright he offers me his arm again.

“Well, let’s not be too hasty.”  Then I reach up on my tiptoes to kiss his wonderful lips.  

Free from distraction we may have heard footsteps growing closer, but we don’t until it’s too late. With my lips still touching his I hope whoever has caught us is holographic.  

Chakotay is blushing now.  This is bad.

I turn slowly and am greeted by the best possible person.

“Ah, Captain.  Commander,” Neelix says.  “I figured the lei was mostly ceremonial.  But maybe there’s something to it yet,” he winks.  Then he sees mine has broken and fallen to the ground.  “We’ll have to get you another.”

I can feel my face flush completely.  “Neelix, this isn’t –“

“Your secret is safe with me,” he vows. “But perhaps I should be careful how many more of those I give out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From/for @cheile. 378 words. Episode 3 x 14 - Alter Ego (she also requested the location and POV)


End file.
